Where I was on 9/11/01: Stamford, CT

On September 11, 2001, I was living with my boyfriend in Stamford, CT. Notice I write I was living with my boyfriend, and not we were living together. I was woefully “between jobs,” having recently lost mine in the dot-com crash, and feeling very aimless. My boyfriend had given me a place to stay, much like you’d offer your college buddy a place to crash for a few months as he figured out what to do next. Everything I owned was stored at my childhood home in suburban Virginia, right outside of Washington, DC. Life was not terrible, but it wasn’t exactly ideal either. I was desperately hoping to find a new job and to get my life back on track.

On September 11, I woke-up eager to greet the new day. I had an interview in Manhattan for a job that seemed more than promising. I got ready, putting on my black Ann Taylor “interview suit” and practicing my nice-to-meet-you handshake in the mirror. When I was about three minutes away from dashing out the door to the train station, the phone rang. It was my mom.

“Don’t go into the City today,” she cautioned.

“What?!” I replied, “Of course I’m going into the City. I have an interview. For a job, maybe even a really good job.”

My mom continued, “Are you watching the news? Don’t go.”

“Yes, I’m watching the news. It looks like a small plane hit a building, but that’s way downtown. My interview is in midtown, so it doesn’t even matter. I gotta run… I’ll miss my train.”

And with a mom’s prescience she says, “Don’t go. You’ll see. That plane crash was no accident.”

Of course, my Mom was right. Before long, the initial report that a small, private aircraft had gone off-course and crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers was confirmed as being the absolute opposite of an accident – it was in fact the result of one of the most coordinated attacks in history, with nineteen terrorists taking control of four commercial airliners. And by the time I got to the Stamford train station, all trains to and from Grand Central had been cancelled.

And soon, a missed job interview was the last thing anyone, including me, was thinking about.

I took the Amtrak train home to Washington, DC a few days later. It seemed as good a time as any for a visit home, as there certainly weren’t going to be interviews for jobs in New York City anytime soon. As I boarded, I remember thinking that I had never seen so many people wearing suits on the train, and that almost everyone traveling had a garment bag, clearly containing a dress suit. I wondered why, and then heard the man in the seat in front of me quietly get directions to a funeral the next day. The woman across the aisle sobbed, discretely, the entire trip. To this day, the collective grief of my fellow passengers is an indelible memory.

A few weeks later, the job interview was rescheduled. I got the job. I moved to SoHo, subletting an apartment via a chain of a-friend-of-a-friend. When asked why she moved, I was told that the front window once had a direct view of the World Trade Center’s twin towers, and she couldn’t take the window’s new vista now that they were gone. When people came to visit me at my new apartment they agreed it was an eerie sight to look out to where you knew the towers should be, only to find them gone. I of course, had no idea – I hardly knew Manhattan.

Now, it’s ten years later. The then-boyfriend and I are married; we have three kids. We live in suburban New Jersey, in a town proud of its view of the downtown Manhattan skyline. The first thing the neighbors said to us when we moved in last year was “there was an amazing view of the towers from your house. I still can’t get used to them being gone.”

I titled this post “Where I was on 9/11,” but really a better title might have been “Where I wasn’t on 9/11”. I was able to survive this tragic day without injury, whereas so many were much less fortunate. May the memory of those who perished that day be a blessing.

About Anna S.

Anna S. is living the good life in New Jersey with three kids under the age of eight and one husband over the age of thirty. A former New Yorker, the arrival of baby number three sent the family to the suburban wilds like many before them. When not complaining about how hard it is to find decent Thai food in her small town, she spends her time trying to curb her children’s candy and TV consumption, teaching them the joy of a good book, and extolling the many benefits of the occasional nap.

Comments

I had just learned I was pregnant with my first child a couple of weeks before 9/11. The weekend after, we had a wedding to attend in North Jersey near where I’m from and the view that used to contain the Twin Towers on the drive up to my house looked so bare and unrecognizable that it made me ill (not the pregnancy). Back in 1986 for the Statue of Liberty centennial, we went into the Twin Towers to watch the fireworks (my dad’s friend worked in the building), and I distinctly remember being in the elevator, feeling overwhelmed and worried as it climbed several floors above.

Even though I did not lose anyone close to me that day, I find it difficult to read or watch anything about 9/11 and all it encompassed, but your post was thoughtful and sad but good.

I had just arrived to work in North Jersey when I learned of the first plane. I can play every moment in my head from that point on. Watched the collapse from a large projected live feed in our conference room and recall feeling as though I were watching some life-like action/horror film. Breezy, sunny September mornings will forever bring it rushing back. My thoughts on Sunday will be on the families and heroes. Thanks for your perspective Anna.

Thanks for the perspective. We were on a work vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and I was on a work call. My colleague told me about a plane hitting the towers. I turned on the TV and things were never the same. The worst thing was driving back to Hoboken and seeing the big, black clouds from a long way off. The weather was so cruelly beautiful. Then seeing all the missing posters, flowers and candles in Hoboken, it was chilling. I will always remember that day, my thoughts go out to all those who lost beloved family and friends.